14 DAY TRIAL // It’s no secret that Windows remains the dominant desktop operating system worldwide and Windows 7 in particular has the largest market share in most countries across the globe.
And still, competition in the desktop OS field got fiercer in the last couple of years, with both Linux and Mac OS X attracting more users and thus contributing to a slight market share decline for Windows.
What’s more, the never-ending wave of criticism that hit Microsoft following the launch of Windows 8 was also one of the reasons behind this drop, despite the tech giant’s aggressive market campaign launched in October 2012.
There are countries around the world, though, where Windows has a nearly 90 percent market share and Linux isn’t even included in market share statistics, even though so many people are claiming that Ubuntu is a much user-friendly platform these days.
StatCounter figures collected in September 2013 from Namibia’s PC network indicate that 61.87 percent of local users are now running Windows 7, while 11.59 percent of them deployed Windows 8. Windows XP comes next, followed by Mac OS X and iOS. Linux has less than 1 percent and is included in the “Other” category.
Ghana is yet another example. Windows 7 has a market share of 51.09 percent, while Windows XP is the runner-up with 22.74 percent. Windows 8 is third with 15.12 percent, followed by Mac OS X and iOS. Again, Linux didn’t make the cut.
Users in Somalia also seem pretty addicted to Windows 7, as 64.25 percent of their computers are now powered by this particular OS version. Windows XP, Windows 8, Mac OS X, and iOS are also among the top platforms, while Linux has less than 0.77 percent of the market.
As you can see, most African countries aren’t so interested in Linux, even though most distributions are available with a freeware license. Overall, 52.27 percent of the entire continent is using Windows 7, while Windows XP is second with 32.92 percent of the users. Windows 8 takes the podium with 5.98 percent. Unfortunately for Linux fans, the “other” category accounts for only 0.96 percent of the market.
